Official UK procurement notice
Trosley Country Park - Cafe Operator
Authority: Kent County Council (Local council)
Kent County Council is exploring the future delivery of a catering concession at Trosley Country Park café and is inviting suitably experienced food and beverage operators to participate in a market engagement exercise. The café at Trosley Country Park is currently operated in-house.
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionKent County Council is exploring the future delivery of a catering concession at Trosley Country Park café and is inviting suitably experienced food and beverage operators to participate in a market engagement exercise.
The café at Trosley Country Park is currently operated in-house. The facility benefits from a functional kitchen and both indoor and outdoor seating, providing an established base from which a future operator could deliver a high-quality catering offer. The Country Park also offers venue hire and events, where the café operator should be able to provide catering to support these activities in addition to the day-to-day café service.
The purpose of this engagement is to better understand the current market, including levels of interest and capability, potential operating models and the opportunities available to deliver a sustainable and commercially viable café.
This exercise provides potential operators with an early opportunity to help inform the Council’s approach to any future procurement. The Council is particularly interested in understanding how the café could enhance the visitor experience, respond to the needs of different park users and provide an appropriate commercial return.
Key aims
Through this market engagement exercise, the Council is seeking views on:
•the level of market interest and capacity to operate a catering concession at Trosley Country Park;
•the type and range of food and beverage offer that would appeal to visitors and support the Country Park experience;
•any practical, operational or commercial considerations that may affect the attractiveness or viability of the opportunity; and
•the information operators would require from the Council to make an informed decision about participating in any future procurement.
Participation in this market engagement exercise is intended to assist the Council in developing its requirements and commercial approach. It does not constitute the commencement of a procurement process or a commitment by the Council to proceed with a procurement or contract opportunity.
Estimated dates and values are unknown at this stage.
For more information about this opportunity, please visit the eSourcing portal at:
www.kentbusinessportal.org.uk/tenders/UK-UK-Kent:-… ↗
To respond to this opportunity, please click here:
CPV: Catering services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Kent County Council buys Catering services (CPV 5552), and who usually turns up
Kent County Council’s published record next to the market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Catering services (CPV 5552) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
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The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.
Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.
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Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered. The market figure counts awards delivered in South East England.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.
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Half of these awards have an award date within 78 days of the bid deadline.
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The market share is a minimum: some awards have no bid count.
Missing bid counts may hide more single-bid awards. This share is a minimum.
How many bids did past lots attract?
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1 bid29% / 13%
2–342% / 23%
4–623% / 57%
7+7% / 6%
How did awards compare with estimates?
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Below estimate37% / 9%
Within ±2%40% / 29%
Above estimate23% / 62%
Assess each lot i
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Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list
Lot #1CPV 5552No real estimate
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Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 82 past lots.
1 bid13%
2–323%
4–657%
7+6%
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No comparable awards for this lot yet.
Who has supplied this buyer on similar work? i
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| Supplier | This buyer’s earlier contract | Lot | Award value | Why listed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coppard Plant HireLive contract | Resurface of footpaths at Trosley Country Parkruns to Feb 2027 | — | £67k | Matched as the earlier contract |
Who could compete for this lot? i
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Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.
About this data
- Estimates, labelled. The price range, possible competitors and earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards, not published facts, win chances or price advice. The buyer’s own record and the wider market are shown apart, never mixed.
- Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender and Contracts Finder), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0, updated through the day and rebuilt nightly. Not every figure uses both feeds, and each one shows how many records it rests on: see the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
Coming up in this sector
Contracts ending within 12 months · Retender Radar, sector filter set
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- Procurement threshold
- Below threshold
- Regulatory regime
- Concession
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 9 Nov 2026, 10:07 GMT
- Last source update
- 9 Nov 2026, 10:07 GMT
- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-106038- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-07b72bFind a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
9 Nov 2026 → 1 Apr 2027 · 3 dates- Planning notice published5 days ago9 Nov 2026, 10:07 GMT
- Today14 Nov 2026
- Market engagementin 23 days7 Dec 2026, 23:59 GMT
The Market Engagement Questionnaire is available on the Kent Business Portal.
- Contract startsin 137 days1 Apr 2027, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published9 Nov 2026, 10:07 GMTUK2
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Pipeline notice- Awards (0)
- No award published
- Contracts (0)
- No contract published
- Bid statistics
- No aggregate bid statistics published
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Official documents & specifications (1)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender